One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind...40 years ago

Forty years ago, Apollo 11 took off with 3 astronauts - Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins and journeyed to the moon. The lunar module, codenamed Eagle landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon.

I vividly remember that night in 1969..we gathered in front of that old Black & White TV and watched the grainy footage of the lunar landing and then hearing those famous words as Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. NASA has put on their website enhanced photos of that historic voyage at NASA-Apollo

This lunar landing was the culmination of an extraordinary endeavor, led by the public sector. There was an incredible amount of innovation throughout the years that came about because calculated risks were taken to achieve the common objectives.

There are lessons for all of us from this incredible undertaking.

Innovative Management Reception

Well, I'm just back from the reception held for the 8 finalists of the IPAC Innovative Management Award co-sponsored by IBM Canada and KPMG. The reception was held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Toronto (where the finalists will be presenting to the jury tomorrow). It was a great reception - good conversation, fine wine and some finger foods.

I had an opportunity to address the 50 or so guests as did Kim Devooght from IBM and Richard Harris from KPMG. Quite a number of senior folks from the Government of Ontario, including Shelly Jamieson attended the reception.

As I mentioned in my previous post we received over 90 submissions, which underscores the innovative nature of governments right across Canada. It is important that we continue to celebrate public service in Canada and tell the public our success stories. This is the purpose of these awards and the other awards that IPAC runs.

Dylan from our office was taking pictures and I will post some of these in the next little while.

Innovative Management Award/Prix pour gestion innovatrice

Tomorrow night I am attending a reception for the 8 finalists in the IPAC Innovative Management Award for 2009. The award which was established in 1990 is co-sponsored by IBM Canada and KPMG. The theme of the award is "Turnaround" which coincides with the theme of the 2009 annual conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick. This year we received over 90 quality submissions. On Friday the 8 finalists present their projects to the jury. The winners will be announced at the annual conference. Stay tuned for pictures of the reception.

Demain soir je vais a une réception pour les 8 finalistes du Prix IAPC pour gestion innovatrice pour 2009. Ce prix qui fut établi en 1990 est commandité par IBM Canada et KPMG. Le thème pour 2009 est « redressement s» qui s’avère être le même thème de notre conférence annuelle au Nouveau Brunswick. Cette année nous avons reçu plus de 90 soumissions. Vendredi les 8 finalistes vont présenter leur projet aux membres du comite de sélection Les gagnants vont être annoncé a la conférence annuelle a Fredericton.


The 8 finalists are/ les 8 finalistes sont:

“Canada@150” Privy Council Office, Government of Canada

“WelcomeBC Web Site” - BC Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development, Ministry of Labour and Citizens’ Services,Service BC

“A New Approach to School Infrastructure”, ASAP Project Team, Alberta Infrastructure

“Collaboration Enhances Outcomes for Technological Innovation”, Information Technology, The City of Calgary

“Ontario’s Drinking Water Safety Net”, Drinking Water Management Division, Ontario Ministry of the Environment

“Patient Safety Indicator Public Reporting” Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care

“‘L’Accent sur l’avenir’ of French-language Services: Modernization of the traditional accountability paradigm & innovation in leadership training” Office des affaires francophones/Office of Francophone Affairs - Ontario

“Revenue Québec: Indices de richesse” Revenue Québec

Good luck to all the finalists! Bonne Chance aux finalistes!

Vanier Medal 2008/ Médaille Vanier 2008

On April 20, 2009 at the Supreme Court of Canada, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presented to Margaret Bloodworth the Vanier Medal. The award is handed out by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada to recognize an individual who has distinguished themselves throughout their career and contributed to public service in Canada. Margaret served as Deputy Minister in the Government of Canada. Here is a photo montage of the ceremony.

Le 20 avril 2009 a la Cour suprême du Canada, la juge en chef a présenté la médaille Vanier a Margaret Bloodworth. Une fois par an l’Institut d’administration publique du Canada remet, en témoignage de services éminents et exceptionnels, la médaille Vanier à une personne qui a fait preuve d’un leadership hors pair en administration publique et dans la fonction publique au Canada ou qui, par ses publications ou autres réalisations, a apporté une importante contribution au domaine de l’administration publique ou de la fonction publique au Canada. Voici un "vidéo" de la ceremonie.

New Blog Layout/Nouveau blogue

Well, I've decided to move my blog from being embedded on the IPAC site (with its limitations) to using Blogger. This way, I can create a more diverse and bilingual blog.

J'ai decidé de transferer mon blogue du site de l'IAPC au site "Blogger". De cette façon je pourrai crée de meilleurs "posts"

Back after a long delay

It's been a long time since I last blogged. I have been finishing an Executive program which has kept me very busy.....

Well that program is all done & I now have some spare time to blog once again. I will be attending the Lac Carling conference at Niagara on the Lake on Sunday till Tuesday and I will blog from there and will let you know what is happening at the conference.

IPAC has a number of new and exciting events coming up. Some are already on our site - for example the Mastering Employee Engagement & Organizational Change Conference on June 23rd and 24th. Other very special events and activities will be announced in the next week or so...stay tuned.

In the next number of weeks I will be attending a couple of conferences overseas and will blog from there as well as resume some video blogs.

Speaking of videos, check out our "video" of the Vanier Medal award ceremony that took place at the Supreme Court of Canada on April 20, 2009. Go to "Awards...Vanier Medal" on the left hand menu to see Margaret Bloodworth receive the Vanier Medal from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Innovation and Risk

This week the Globe & Mail's ROB interviewed Tim Jackson, a Venture Capitalist from Kitchener-Waterloo. His message about calculated risk-taking in order to innovate and learning from our failures resonates.

I've known Tim, who is a partner in Tech Capital Partners for many years (all the way back to student politics days). In his interview he talks about learning from our failures and not being afraid to take calculated risks. The message he has for the private sector is one that applies amply to the public sector.

To link to the article in the Globe & Mail and the video.

We bemoan the minutest failures in government - they usually end up in BIG headlines in the newspaper - without realizing that, just as in life, not everything works out perfectly. This risk-averseness has resulted in the stifling of innovation and creativity and the explosion of so-called "accountability" agreements, which are nothing more than rules, rules and more rules. We forget that it is sometimes OK to fail as we can learn a lot from the failures. Now, if you keep repeating the same failure & you don't learn anything from them and you take unnecessary risks then you should be held to account.

Just as Tim espouses the need to "celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship, and understand that failure is okay. You can't innovate without failure" in the private sector, I strongly believe that we need to celebrate innovation in the public sector as well.